PESHAWAR, Dec 1: Authorities have failed to resolve the issue of car parking in Saddar’s main bazaar area. People were being forced to park their vehicles in lanes near the bazaar in violation of rules, which was hindering traffic flow and causing hardships to pedestrians.

Afghan refugees, who conduct businesses mostly on footpaths and road-side stalls, had also been complicating the problem.

It was observed that only two plazas in the area had reserved parking lots, one adjacent to the Gharbi police station and the other near the Stadium chowk, while the rest of the high-rise buildings had no such facilities.

Another parking lot, known as Apwa House, located in the heart of the bazaar, could provide space for at least four hundred vehicles, but it had been shut for some years reportedly due to litigation.

The administrators of the parking lots told Dawn that they preferred to keep vehicles owned either by local shopkeepers or people known to them.

Commenting on the congested road situation in Saddar, a police official on duty at the Stadium Chowk said the situation was getting out of control and blamed the Cantonment Board officials for creating the mess. The main problem, he said, was the push carts and mini-shops set up in front of the shops on both sides of the roads.

Shopkeepers and Cantonment Board officials took bribes on a monthly basis from the encroachers, it is learnt.

The SP traffic, when approached for comment, said that it was duty of the City Development and Municipal Department (CDMD) officials to widen the existing roads or plan bypasses in order to minimise traffic pressure on the main arteries.

He claimed that due to the increase in number of vehicles on roads, the situation had aggravated.

Cantonment Executive Officer Mohammad Shafi said the buildings in Saddar had no parking facilities, except one or two and people were also violating rules by parking vehicles on roads.

He claimed that the board was planning to construct a plaza near the Stadium Chowk which would have adequate car parking space.“The buildings which were constructed before my tenure have no facility of parking, but I have applied the rules and the builders will be bound to construct parking lots,” he claimed.

Regarding bribes, he said the board’s staff was regularly checking and imposing fines on the encroachers.